Ottawa says it won't go easy on suspected Nazis

OTTAWA - Denis Coderre, the Immigration Minister, said
yesterday the government has no plans to go easy on
suspected Nazi war criminals living in Canada, but he did
not rule out ending the costly legal process of deporting
them.

Mr. Coderre has ordered a review of Canada's policy of
stripping citizenship of Nazi war criminals and deporting
them. Among the options is removing their citizenship but
not deporting them.

Senior officials say it costs millions of dollars in time-consuming
judicial appeals to deport elderly suspected Nazi war criminals,
many of whom die before the process is complete. There has
not been a successful deportation under current rules, although
two men left voluntarily.

Mr. Coderre denied the government has any plan to be lenient
toward suspected Nazi collaborators, but he did not rule out a
denaturalization-only approach.

''First of all, it is tolerance zero regarding war criminals. What
we are looking for all the time is a mechanism that makes
sure we send the right message: that this is not a haven for
war criminals,'' he told reporters.

Asked if Ottawa is reviewing its policy of deportation of alleged
war criminals, Mr. Coderre said all options are on the table.

''I am asking all the time to my department to have the proper
mechanism to make sure it is efficient so we are taking at look
at every scenario,'' he said.

Officials say another option is to continue with deportation,
but give that power to a judge, rather than Cabinet as it now
is, to ''depoliticize'' the process.

Under the current policy, a judge decides on whether a
suspected war criminal should be stripped of citizenship,
but it is up to Cabinet to launch deportation a hearing, which
would be held by an immigration appeal board.

Officials say it would be best to have the judge who rules on
denaturalization also determine deportation. Immigration
officials believe that would make it easier to remove modern-
day war criminals, who are able to use the legal process to
delay their deportation.

Canadian Jewish groups have denounced any effort to abandon
the policy of denaturalization and deportation, saying people
suspected of mass murder should not be allowed to live in
Canada.

The government shifted its focus from criminal prosecution
to revocation of citizenship followed by deportation in 1995
after the Supreme Court of Canada allowed for a defence
that the accused was simply following orders. The ruling
made it virtually impossible to convict people of committing
war crimes. Ottawa then adopted a strategy of stripping
naturalized Canadians of their citizenship and deporting
them for lying about their wartime activities.